Oftentimes, different industries have differing levels of acceptability concerning parts/component failure. For example, the low cost toy industry may have less stringent standards concerning parts/component failure, while other industries may have much more strict standards concerning acceptable levels of failure.
One industry that has very strict standards concerning acceptable levels of failure is the automotive industry. There are many integrated circuits in vehicles and, if any one breaks, the vehicle may not operate properly. Since some of these devices may be in safety critical applications, failure can have severe consequences; wherein other failures may result in excess pollution or may violate regulatory requirements. Even failures that seem small (e.g., a faulty seat memory circuit) may result in consumer dissatisfaction and expensive repair.
Additionally, vehicles may operate in very harsh and varied environments. Temperature extremes may run from the Alaskan north to the Arizona desert. Further, cars may be subjected to e.g., high and low levels of humidity/moisture, high electric fields, and mechanical shock. Additionally, cars must withstand common faults, such as a technician who installs battery cables backwards or incorrect voltages caused by e.g., a faulty alternator, a depleted battery, or corroded contact.
In order to ensure the highest quality vehicles, vehicle manufacturers have extremely high quality standards and insist on the highest quality level components. For example, they may drive semiconductor suppliers for “Zero DPM (i.e., Zero Defective Parts per Million”. While this ideal may not be truly achievable, integrated circuit suppliers strive to come as close as possible to this standard.
One key parameter that vehicle manufacturers test for is the quality of the oxides used in the integrated circuits, wherein an oxide is an electrical isolation layer. If an oxide breaks down at a low voltage, the device may not be of acceptable quality. So integrated circuit manufacturers may need to apply extreme voltages (e.g., ±100V) to the terminals of the integrated circuit. The manufacture may then measure the current flowing into and out of the pins of the Device Under Test (i.e., DUT) as these extreme voltages are applied, wherein if the current measured is large, the manufacture may know that one or more oxide layers have broken down and the DUT may be defective.